


Storms

by Molly



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Stargate SG-1 - Freeform, Team, ep-tag:SG1.111.TormentofTantalus, gen - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-09-22
Updated: 2008-09-22
Packaged: 2017-10-02 00:49:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Molly/pseuds/Molly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><i>Missing Scene from Torment of Tantalus in which Daniel bleeds. A little. </i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Storms

**Author's Note:**

> My first SG-1 story.

The race to the stargate gave Jack O'Neill very little time to collect his thoughts on the utter idiocy Daniel had been embracing with academic fervor just moments ago, but the thoughts seemed willing to collect themselves. They boiled into the forefront of his mind as his legs pumped and sweat flowed from his brow into his eyes. There should've been nothing distracting him from the utter necessity of pushing his body to its limits and beyond.

But there was Daniel, running with him, right beside him...and yet, somehow, leaving a vital part of himself behind.

Jack tried not to think, because thinking made him remember and remembering made him angry. He kept one eye on Daniel and one on the ground in front of them, thanking the Air Force silently for every obstacle course they'd ever put him through. He had to move less quickly than he'd have liked, because Daniel Jackson had been playing with hieroglyphics when Jack had been learning to dodge debris at a dead run.

He pushed himself, and he pushed Daniel, and finally, through falling rock and disintegrating walls, they were there.

Everyone but Carter had already gone through, and the peculiar, watery surface of an activated stargate rippled and tore inside the huge, gun-metal grey ring. Sparks traced themselves over the symbols that ran along its surface, flaring like summer lightning as the storm raged outside and vented its wrath on the battered walls of the tower they were about, God-willing, to abandon.

"Go!" Jack shouted at her, waving her through, feeling light as that responsibility was lifted. Now there was just Daniel, and they were close. The fortress was dissolving around them like a house of cards, but they were close. They were going to make it.

Warned only by a deep, strange groaning from overhead, Jack dove toward the gate, fisting one hand in the dusty green fabric of Daniel's jacket to push him forward and down. The huge, mottled beam just missed them, its fall toward them broken by one unsteady wall. Jack's heart caught in his throat at the nearness of it, then again as the shifting, flickering surface the gate flashed silver, then vanished. Emptiness gave way to silver again, then nothing, then silver, and Jack grabbed Daniel from behind. They had to move, and move _now_, before the gate destabilized completely.

Before the ancient foundation of the room gave way at last and plunged both of them into the roiling sea below.

"Go on!" he yelled over the thunder, amazed to still feel resistance from the man whose life he was trying to save. His eyes widened when he saw the direction of Daniel's gaze. "Daniel!"

He was looking back, toward that damn room again.

Jack's eyes narrowed. Daniel could look if he wanted, but he was gonna be looking from a much greater distance in just about two seconds. Giving him a solid shove, Jack pushed Daniel ahead of him, hanging back until the last of his team turned and dove toward the shimmering pathway home. There was no way he was leaving until Daniel was picking icicles out of his hair on the other side of the gate.

In the space of a second, Daniel was gone. Jack went through a breath later, head first, a wordless prayer on his lips as the frigid darkness took him, and sped him through to the light.

  
   


* * *

  
   


Behind them, wind and rain and storm-tossed sea battered at the crumbling walls of the alien fortress. In the eerie silence of utter solitude, the stargate shuddered, sparked, and fell, its passing marked only by the insentient eyes of a history forever unrecorded.

  
   


* * *

  
   


//"Chevron seven will not engage."//

Daniel's eyes opened, and found the ceiling of his bedroom just where he'd left it five minutes ago. He'd been tossing and turning all night, dreams haunting him, teasing him with possibilities. Neither the warmth of his heavy blankets nor the utter exhaustion that pulled at him like gravity could drive consciousness away. The things they could've _learned_ from that book...

Jack thought it was an academic thing, but it was Jack who was using his head instead of his heart. Forget the benefits to mankind, forget medical advances, forget the sheer literary and philosophical value inherent in such a record.

The book could've given them something to fight the Goa'uld, a way to meet them on equal footing and take back the family that had been stolen from them. They could've saved Sha'uri and Skaara.

They _could_ have.

//"I think it's safe to say the place is gone."//

Gone.

And with it, the gate, and the book, and very nearly Jack and himself as well. Daniel knew he'd thanked the wrong man back in the observation room, but his anger at Jack -- at himself -- was still raw and strong, and it wouldn't let him say what he should have.

Earnest hadn't saved Daniel's life; Jack had.

//"I am willing to take that risk."

"I'm _not_. Let's go!"//

Jack had grabbed him and would've dragged him out of the room if Daniel hadn't stopped him with one word.

"Please..."

He spoke it aloud in the darkness, more softly now than he had as the alien tower had shuddered and crumbled around them. He wasn't sure who he was pleading with.

In the silence of his memory, he wanted Jack to let him stay behind, to let him decipher the lights and shapes and symmetries that could hold the key not only to their universe, but to their own personal quests.

In the lonely darkness of his bedroom, he wanted Sha'uri to cast off the possession of the Goa'uld and find him, lie warm and sweet beside him, whisper to him in the soft, light accents of Abydos.

And someplace even deeper than that, he wanted never to have heard of stargates and chevrons and wormholes. He wanted Katherine to have found someone else to translate her cartouche, someone else to discover the secret of the seven symbols. Someone else to travel through space and time and culture to the timeless, sandswept world that had become his home, so this emptiness, this ache, would belong to someone else.

Anyone else.

Anyone but him.

God, how he wanted to go home.

//"Here's the bright side. You're alive."//

Alive, and alone. Just like he'd been before he'd ever heard of a stargate. He was just as he'd been then...only now...now he knew what he'd been missing. The halls of academia were cold and empty compared to the thriving desert of Abydos; his old colleagues were ghosts compared to the exuberant, vivid people of that dusty world. Woefully ill-equipped for life on his own planet, Daniel had found a place for himself on another, one most humans would consider dangerously backward, cruelly impoverished.

And then it was over. He'd been thrust back into his homeworld, playing the same role he'd started with. Daniel thought Jack would probably appreciate the irony of that...right after kicking his butt.

Jack had some fairly definite ideas about how to deal with pain, and none of them involved self-pity.

With a sigh that was half-yawn, Daniel climbed out of bed and shrugged into his robe, not bothering to tie it. It was a long shot, but if the gods were kind, he might find something on his bookshelves he hadn't already read.

  
   


* * *

  
   


Jack had been willing to wait his turn. He'd waited through the testing of the gate -- knowing, almost instinctively, that they wouldn't be able to go back. He'd waited through that absolutely delightful hugfest, and then through the final, formal reunion of Katherine and Earnest. That was sweet, sure, and he was happier for Katherine than he was ever going to tell anybody, but he had other things on his mind.

Like exactly how long it was going to take him to get Daniel alone and rip his lungs out.

After that, there'd been the debriefing, and several times in his own report he'd had to stop for a second and fight for control. He hadn't looked at Daniel. If he'd looked, he would've shredded the man right there in front of the General and the team, and that was just not Jack's style.

But man, had he ever been tempted. Now, standing at the door to Daniel's apartment at what was it -- three, four in the morning? -- he was about to give in. If he could just get the man to answer his door.

"Come on, Daniel, I know you're in there," he said loudly to the doorbell. "I don't want to stand out here all night."

"Jack?" Daniel's voice was muffled, and a little hoarse from sleep. "Just a minute..." The door opened, and a narrow wedge of light spilled through. Daniel stuck his head out, squinting. "What are you--"

"Good morning, Dr. Jackson," Jack said, pushing the door open further and stepping inside. He stood in the center of the room and turned back to face Daniel, taking in the loose blue robe, rumpled hair, and red eyes free, for once, of glasses. "You're looking well," he added dryly.

"Jack, it's..." Daniel went to a tall metal bookcase on the far wall and moved his face so close to the clock Jack was sure there was more to it than just friendship. "...it's past four. If you're having a bout of insomnia, why don't you go...bother Teal'c, or something. I don't think he sleeps."

Jack grinned, tilting his head to one side as if he were considering it. "Now, ya see, Daniel, I'd love to do that, because Teal'c and I have this understanding. I'm the team leader, and he's a member of the team, so he does what I tell him to do. That sound at all familiar to you? Because I could've _sworn_ I had the very same understanding with you, up until about twelve hours ago."

Daniel raked a hand through his hair and squinted in the general direction of the couch onto which Jack had just flung himself. "Look, Jack, if you're just here to yell at me--"

"You know, you're just as smart as they say you are."

"--then at least let me get us a couple of beers first."

"Be my guest."

Daniel frowned, and slid his glasses on with two fingers. "This is my apartment. That makes you _my_ guest, Jack."

"So?"

"So get your feet off my coffee table."

"Right."

Jack rolled his eyes and put his feet back on the floor. He waited just until Daniel vanished into the closet he called a kitchen, then was off the couch again, pacing the length of the living room.

He really, really needed to calm down. There wasn't any sense in getting this uptight; the whole thing was over, a thing of the past. After he made sure Daniel would _never_ think of doing anything so brick-headed in the future, Jack could go home and sleep until the next trip down the rabbit hole.

Yeah. And if he kept saying that, maybe after a while he could successfully pretend he believed it.

Where the hell was Daniel, anyway? How long did it take to find two beers in a minifridge? Two long strides took Jack to the threshold of the kitchen just as a loud crash and a muffled curse reached his ears.

"Jesus, Daniel!"

The younger man held his hand over the sink, running water over a cut that streamed dark, red venous blood. Shattered glass sparkled in the porcelain basin, glinting pink and then clear as Daniel's hand moved from beneath the flow.

"I seem to've cut myself," Daniel said, almost absently.

"Ya think?" Jack grabbed a dishtowel from the counter, taking Daniel's hand in his and wrapping it with quick, efficient movements. "What were you _doing_?"

"I was...getting a couple of glasses, and this one fell into the sink...I tried to pick up some of the pieces..." Daniel broke off on a hiss, teeth clenched tightly. "Ow! Ease up, Jack, it's not that bad..."

"Oh, yeah? You're an MD now, too?" Jack snapped, his voice a study in sarcasm.

"No, but the hand in question is at the end of _my_ arm, and I think that qualifies me to decide if it needs medical attention, all right?"

There was a hardness in Daniel's dark eyes that didn't require interpretation; Jack backed off and leaned against the opposite counter. "You should put something on that," he said, his voice gruff. "You don't want it getting infected."

Daniel just looked at him, his gaze a mix of curiosity and vague irritation. "Jack, what do you want? Why are you here?"

That, Jack reflected darkly, was a very good question.

  
   


* * *

  
   


Four in the morning, and not the greatest morning of his life, and Daniel was standing in his kitchen with Jack O'Neill while his hand throbbed dully and his temper flared. If life got any more surreal, he was going to start looking around for a dial-home device. Things just weren't supposed to be so crazy on this side of the gate. This was supposed to be the place where things made sense.

Not the place where the closest thing he had to a friend on the planet showed up in the middle of the night, in one of the strangest moods Daniel had ever seen, eyes flashing almost black with anger.

And darkening when confronted, like a brand new pain had found a home in Jack's heart, and Daniel was somehow the source of it.

"Jack..." Daniel softened his voice deliberately, getting a grip on his own irritation in order to find the source of his friend's. "Talk to me. What's going on here?"

Anger sparked between them like a current, and Daniel drew back instinctively, as if the heat in Jack's gaze could flare and burn. "You tell me, Daniel," he said, his voice harsh. "You're the one who tried to commit suicide a few hours ago."

Eyes widening, Daniel felt his jaw drop. He couldn't believe the raw bitterness in Jack's voice. "I thought you understood that," he said intensely, leaning forward. "I thought we were clear on why I wanted to stay behind."

"Yeah? Well, you thought wrong," Jack said. "Are you gonna put a bandage on that, or just bleed all over the floor?"

Daniel had almost forgotten the shallow cut; he winced as pain returned with his attention to it. "Yeah," he said. "Sorry."

"Your kitchen," Jack pointed out. "Don't apologize to me."

"I'll be right back."

"I'll go with you," Jack said, nodding toward the bloody towel when Daniel raised his eyebrows. "Look what happened the last time I let you wander the place alone."

"I spent a year on Abydos without you," Daniel said. "I can find the bathroom on my own."

"Lucky you," Jack said, laying a firm, guiding hand on Daniel's shoulder. "You don't have to."

  
   


* * *

  
   


Three totally unsuccessful attempts later, Jack took the roll of gauze away from Daniel and tended the injured hand himself. He was careful, his fingers swift and sure and efficient as he applied peroxide, a topical antibiotic, and two butterfly bandages to the cut. When he was done, he wound the gauze around Daniel's palm in several layers, then secured the bandage with surgical tape.

Jack didn't have to ask why the first aid supplies were on hand. More than once, they'd all come back from missions through the gate looking like the losing side in a barroom brawl, seeping cuts decorating their hides like grisly badges of honor. Sometimes they went to the infirmary, but sometimes, they just went home. First Aid kits were standard issue on the Stargate Project, and Daniel got knocked around as much as any of them.

So why did this simple, too-familiar act make Jack want to hit something?

"Jack..."

"What?" he snapped, meeting Daniel's eyes and silently daring him to say the wrong word.

"Can I have my hand back now?"

The words took a moment to process, a long moment, and when they finally penetrated they didn't make as much sense as Jack felt they should've. "What?"

"My hand, Jack. That's kind of...ow...okay, let go. Let go!" Daniel yanked his hand back, glaring, just as Jack dropped it as if it were on fire. He hadn't even realized he was finished, but Daniel's cut was cleaned and bandaged and taped and there he'd been, hanging onto the man's hand like his life depended on it.

Shaking his head, Jack turned and left the small bathroom. The living area was still dark, only the soft yellow light pouring through from the kitchen making navigation possible. The image of Daniel's hand gushing blood wouldn't leave him alone; it was waiting behind his eyelids every time he blinked.

That, and the expression of utter bafflement on the man's face when he finally comprehended the depth of Jack's anger. Trust Daniel Jackson to be completely oblivious to the basic facts of the situation; the man was an academic clear down to the bone, and had the ivory-tower blinders to prove it. So what if he'd almost died for the privilege of being dropped into the ocean with some cosmic electric encyclopedia; it was for the advancement of knowledge. That made it worthwhile. Right?

"Wrong," Jack answered himself under his breath. "What an idiot."

"Pardon me?"

Daniel came out of the kitchen carrying two beers awkwardly in one hand. Jack hadn't even seen him pass through the living room, which meant he needed sleep a lot more than a drink; he accepted the bottle anyway, twisted the cap off, and tilted the bottle up for a long pull.

"Thanks," he said when half the beer was gone. "Sit down."

"I'd rather not."

"Sit down before you fall down, Daniel. I'll make that an order if you like. _Not_ that I expect that to make much of a difference," Jack added, rolling his eyes toward the ceiling.

"Fine," Daniel said. He turned sitting into an act of passive-aggression, propping his slippered feet on the coffee table with a bright, malicious smile. "Whatever you say, Colonel."

  
   


* * *

  
   


"If only." Jack took a seat next to Daniel, leaning forward with his elbows propped on his knees. The bottle of beer dangled from hands that suddenly looked awkward, purposeless. With one long finger, he traced random patterns in the chill condensation that dotted the brown glass.

Though it wasn't a word he would normally have applied to Jack O'Neill, Daniel found himself using it anyway. Sitting there in the darkness, holding onto a beer bottle like it was his best friend in all the world...Jack looked fragile. Worse than that, he looked wounded, as if the events of the last twenty-four hours had taken something vital away from him.

Daniel leaned forward and took the bottle out of Jack's hands, setting it down on a coaster. "Jack," he said, his tone gentle and even. "I don't know what's going on here, but it's clear you need to talk about it. I know you find that difficult, but we have been through...a very great deal together. Back on Abydos...we became friends, I think.. Please, trust that, and tell me what this is."

It might have been the words; it might've been the quiet way he said them; Daniel wasn't sure, and didn't particularly care. What mattered was that Jack responded, a sigh that seemed to go on forever draining tension from the tired, still body beside him. Jack rested his head in his hands and spoke just as quietly as Daniel had. "I don't even know where to start."

"We could begin with why you're so angry with me."

"I just don't get it!" Jack seemed unable to sit still for the conversation; he stood up and paced, never looking in Daniel's direction. His voice was harsh, showing the strain that lined his face. "Explain it to me, Daniel. Tell me why you were willing to throw away your entire _life_ to stay there with that damn thing. Because the more I think about it, the less I understand it."

Daniel wasn't entirely sure he understood it himself, and he didn't think he could explain it, no matter how much he wanted to. "I know you don't understand." His voice was a soft contrast to Jack's, wistful. "I really wish you could."

Jack stopped in front of Daniel, and spoke very carefully. "I wish I could, too, because the team needs you, and I think I've got to suspend you from active duty."

  
   


* * *

  
   


Daniel stopped breathing. "You've got to _what_?"

"I can't risk something like...like _this_ \--" gesturing wildly at nothing, "happening again. You've got this nasty habit of deciding to stay on the wrong side of stargates, Daniel, and I'm not..."

"You're not what? Not willing to be responsible? Jack, I'm not in your care. We both know my reasons for staying with this project have _nothing_ to do with the military."

"You're under my command."

"Technically, yes--"

"Technically, morally -- you go out there, you're _my_ responsibility. You don't come back, I get to shave every morning looking at the guy who lost you. Are you getting this?"

Daniel looked up at Jack, his brow wrinkling. "I'm hearing you, but I'm having trouble believing you. I'm out there for one reason and one reason only: To find my people. You know that." Jack's expression didn't change; Daniel's eyes widened. "Come on, you _have_ to know that. This isn't about some rank insignia they decided to pin on my lapel. It's about...diplomacy. Jack, I'm not an officer in the Air Force; I'm an ambassador from Abydos. Wearing camouflage and a patch on my sleeve instead of my robes doesn't change what I am. Tell me you understand that!"

"What I understand," Jack said, his voice rising with each word, "is that _you_ are making _my_ life a living hell! For cryin' out loud, Daniel, what am I supposed to do here? Take you with me all over the damn galaxy and just hope you won't apply for permanent citizenship?"

"It's not like that. _I'm_ not like that. I thought you knew better."

"I thought I did too," Jack said, suddenly quiet. He ran a hand through his hair, eyes flicking around the room as if he were looking for an exit. All the intensity had gone out of him, like a rubber band that had suddenly snapped and released its energy. "When we go out there, I need to know I can count on you. I need to know the team can count on you. But right now, none of us can. You're not on the _team_, Daniel. You're on a _quest_."

Incredulous, it took Daniel a moment to find his voice. "And you're _not_?"

"I am, but it's not my top priority. You, Carter, Teal'c...getting you back here in one piece, that's at the head of my list. Everything else takes a back seat, but not with you. With you, the agenda comes first. It scares me, Daniel. I can't predict you. It's not safe."

That hurt, a lot more than Daniel had thought it would. He'd known the discussion would get to this point somehow, but he hadn't had any clue how bad he'd feel when it finally did. He certainly hadn't expected to find an echoing pain in Jack's eyes when the moment of truth arrived...

And he could never have guessed Jack's hurt would be an additional pressure in his own chest, Jack's disappointment a low, dull ache he felt with his own heart.

Rising, Daniel reached out and laid a hand on his friend's shoulder, as if he could absorb some of the pain into himself through the contact. He waited, watching Jack's bowed head, hearing deep, slow breaths.

When the older man finally looked up, Daniel caught his eyes.

"Jack..."

"You can't do this anymore, Daniel."

Daniel frowned at the sudden non-sequitur, tilting his head to one side. "Can't do what?"

There was a dark, lonely look in Jack's eyes that cut Daniel to the core. He squeezed the shoulder under his hand, lending silent support for whatever struggle was taking place behind his friend's blank expression.

Slowly, inevitably, Jack's control reasserted itself. Daniel could see it settling over Jack like a thick, protective mantle. When he finally spoke, his voice was even. Almost calm. "Teal'c and I are the strength, you and Carter the smarts. But that's not enough."

"You're losing me here, Jack."

Pulling away from the light touch on his shoulder, Jack gave an exasperated glare and threw himself onto the couch again. "Just shut up and listen, all right? This isn't as easy as it looks."

Daniel hid a slight smile; an irritated Jack O'Neill was familiar, if not precisely welcome, territory. "Sorry. Go on."

"The team needs more than brawn and brains. It needs a heart. It needs...an indomitable will. That's you." The words came out harsh. Forced.

"I'm not--"

"We need you," Jack said, his mouth set in a stubborn line. "You make it work."

"Jack--"

"No! Damn it, Daniel, let me finish this!" The chill was back in Jack's eyes, and the anguish. The look tore at Daniel's heart; something dark and strong, deep inside, was crumbling. He hadn't wanted to be needed, hadn't wanted to be counted on. It took away his freedom.

It obligated him, when his only obligation should be to Sha'uri.

Daniel's knees suddenly lacked the power to support him; he sank down onto the coffee table, directly across from Jack. He ignored the sharp edge cutting into the backs of his thighs, ignored the sudden closeness of the room and the panic scrabbling around the edges of his mind, and listened.

For the first time in months, he stopped thinking. Stopped teasing at the boundaries of his own hurt, and just listened.

"We need you," Jack said again. "_I_ need you. You can't just play at this, you can't be a member of the team only as long as the team goes your way. We're a unit, or we're nothing. What's it going to be, Daniel?"

Heart in his throat, his mind reeling, Daniel could barely find his voice. When he did, it fell from his lips in a deep, ravaged whisper. "Don't. Don't ask me that." Please, any favor, any request but that one. "She's all I have."

"It's not a choice. You know we're going to do everything we can to get Sha'uri back. Trust that."

"I can't!"

"Then trust _me_."

Feeling heavy, feeling light-headed, Daniel met Jack's eyes in an agony of denial. "I _can't_."

"You have to." Jack was implacable, an unstoppable force, pushing through Daniel's protestations.

"She's all I have!"

"Damn it, Daniel, _we_ are all you have!"

A solid, painful grip on the back of his neck, a voice raised in something like anger, something like desperation. Jack's eyes were fierce, blazing, like all the persuasive power in the world had gathered there to burn.

"No." Daniel shook Jack's hand off and stood up, stumbling as he moved toward the door. He opened it, and stood there as inner and outer darknesses mingled. The pain was more than he'd ever imagined, unfiltered, unvarnished. Raw and fresh. "Get out."

Jack rose, went to the door. He pushed Daniel aside gently, then closed and locked it.

"No," he said roughly. "Not this time."

  
   


* * *

  
   


"This time?"

Daniel's voice was dull, as lifeless as his eyes. Jack flinched away from the helplessness he saw reflected there.

And then decided to use it, taking a step forward into Daniel's space, backing him up against the wall.

"You asked me to leave you on Abydos. You asked me again in that tower. You might as well stop asking, Daniel, because from now on, the answer is no."

"Please," Daniel said softly. He said it the same way he had in the tower, with the same look in his eyes, but this time Jack wouldn't give in to it. Couldn't. Something was at stake here that Jack didn't quite understand, some part of Daniel that was necessary. Not just to Daniel, not just to the Project, but to Jack himself.

He wasn't about to let it go just because Daniel was turning the eyes on him.

Reaching up, Jack took Daniel's head in both hands, and turned it toward him. He forced the younger man to meet his gaze, his grip gentle but resolute. "I know you think you have no family here," he said quietly, "but you're wrong. Ya got _me_. And I've lost enough family, Daniel. I'm not losing you, too."

"I--"

"Promise me this isn't going to happen again. Promise me right now, or that's it. I'll suspend you, so help me, and you'll sit behind that Plexiglas screen and _watch_ while the rest of us save the world...and maybe Skaara and your Sha'uri, too."

"This is how you solicit trust?"

Jack laughed, a bitter sound. "Trust? You just said I couldn't have your trust. Fine, I can deal with that. You want to think I'm going out there just for my God and Country every day? Fine. Work it out in therapy. But I got news for you, Daniel. I trust _you_. You've never lied to me, never let me down, and I don't see you starting now."

"So, where exactly does that leave us? What does it mean, Jack?"

"It leaves us here: You don't take one step through that gate until I have your word -- your _word_, Daniel -- that you're gonna do everything humanly possible to be with us when we come back home."

Quiet, almost inaudible, Daniel's voice rasped out a whisper. "This is not my home."

Leaning in close, eyes dark and intent, Jack matched Daniel's tone. "Check the address, friend. It's the only home you've got."

  
   


* * *

  
   


The stargate glittered opalescent before them, rippling like bright water. Faintly blue, it looked like it ought to be cold, but the surface of the spatial disruption gave off no chill. The ice came into it in the space _between_ the gates; there was no temperature differential here, on the outside.

Jack felt cold anyway. Where the hell was Daniel?

SG3 went through, and the shimmering surface shattered, faded into nothing.

"Team Three away," an impersonal voice intoned over the PA. "Stand down while we reset, folks."

Jack looked back toward the doors, letting disappointment wash over him and take the place of hope. They were up next, the gate was spinning, locking, and spinning again...

...and Daniel hadn't come.

"Colonel O'Neill."

Damn. "General," Jack said evenly. He knew what was coming.

"Might I inquire as to the whereabouts of Dr. Jackson?" There was a look in the general's eyes that said he knew exactly where Daniel was, and why; Jack wondered what the man thought was to be gained by dragging it out of him.

"He's not coming, sir," Jack said shortly, his eyes straight ahead.

"And this would be because...?"

"He said something about getting a haircut."

"I don't find that very amusing, Colonel," Hammond said, his voice rising as he stared Jack down with cold eyes. "You're a man short. What makes you think I'm letting you go through without him?"

Jack rolled his eyes, dropping all pretense of formality. "Oh, come _on_! You never wanted him to go in the first place! I thought you'd be thrilled he decided to stay home."

"Jack, that man is a member of your team and he has proven himself to be of great value to our work here. I want to know why his erstwhile champion is now so _thrilled_ to be rid of him."

The emphasis was unmistakably sarcastic; Jack sighed, and hung his head for just a moment. "General...Daniel is simply not fit for duty at this time. He..."

"Has the 'flu, sir."

Jack's head whipped around, his eyes widening in surprise. Carter stood just behind and to the right of him, her eyes calm. Her expression oh, so very sincere. Jack quirked half a grin at her, nodding his head, then turned back to Hammond.

"Yeah," he said, still nodding. "Horrible stuff, General. Sniffling, sneezing, coughing..."

"Aching, stuffy head, fever," Carter added.

"He needs the rest, sir," Jack finished. "Besides, you know how he gets when he's sick. We wouldn't want to scare the natives on the other side, now, would we?" He offered his best persuasive smile, turning it up high.

"Fine, Colonel," Hammond said amicably, his own smile just as bright and false as Jack's. "I'll just see about getting him checked into the infirmary. Can't have him spreading a virus around in a place like this, now, can we?" He turned on his heel and stalked over to where Dr. Fraiser and her team stood ready to tend incoming travelers.

Behind Hammond's back, Jack raised his eyebrows significantly at the doctor and pressed a finger to his lips. Seeing the obvious look of surprise crossing her features, Jack winced, and barely had time to lower his hand and look about innocently before the general, alerted by the doctor's expression, turned and cast a hard glare in the direction of SG1.

Giving a little wave to go with his plastic smile, Jack turned around to head toward the gate...

...and ran into a solid wall of immovable Jaffa. Carter, half his size but just as determined, stood beside Teal'c with her arms folded across her chest.

"Colonel O'Neill," Teal'c said, his voice a deep, muted question.

Oh, god. Jack's hand went up to rub over his eyes, hoping to stave off the headache that threatened. "Yeah?"

"Where is Daniel Jackson?"

"Why does everybody keep asking me that?"

"We just want to know what's going on, sir," Carter said quietly, earnestly. "Is Daniel all right?"

"Daniel," Jack said succinctly, "is sulking. Now, if the two of you are ready--"

"What is 'sulking'?" Teal'c said, just as Carter demanded, "What'd you do to him?"

"It's something you do to tick off your commanding officer when you don't get your way," Jack said to Teal'c, no doubt leaving him with an impression of the anthropologist off doing something totally, violently un-Daniel-like. Then, frowning at Carter in irritation, "Whaddya mean, what did I do to him? I didn't do _anything_ to him! He just--"

"Colonel, Daniel wouldn't just not come with us, we _know_ that. With all due respect, sir, _something_ must've happened." The need for diplomacy warred with concern in Carter's eyes; Jack was stricken by how suddenly young she looked. "Did the two of you...I mean, did you--"

"O'Neill would not harm Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said flatly to Carter.

"Not physically, and not intentionally," Carter agreed softly, eyes only for Jack. Behind them, the unmistakable sound of a stargate flaring into life filled the air, a bright wash of blue flaring down the ramp, then snapping back into the portal. Carter and Teal'c didn't spare it a thought or a glance; both were focused entirely on Jack, waiting for answers.

Sighing, Jack surrendered. "I'll tell you both everything that happened," he said, turning her by the shoulders and pushing her gently toward the gate, "_after_ this trip." He let his eyes fall on Teal'c, and would have nudged him after Carter, but a look that was almost -- _almost_ \-- a dare turned the shove into a one-handed gesture of invitation. "After you."

They were on the ramp, almost at the gate, when a call rang out behind them.

"Wait!"

  
   


* * *

  
   


Daniel jogged up the ramp toward the other three quarters of SG1, carefully decked out in his camouflage jacket and full complement of artillery. One part of his mind vaguely noted General Hammond's look of utter startlement and Dr. Fraiser's sudden, sagging relief, but the rest of his thoughts were focused on his team. He stopped in front of Jack, panting, hands absently resting on the gun strapped around his torso. "I'm coming with you," he said, his eyes locked onto Jack's. "I am."

Something bright flashed in Jack's gaze, warming, but the set of his jaw was uncompromising. "Are you?" the colonel said, his voice pitched for Daniel's ears only.

All night Daniel had paced, his mind reeling from Jack's ultimatums...his declarations. Friendship, family...those were alien concepts here, never a part of Daniel's life on this side of the gate. Teal'c was more at home on Earth than Daniel was, and now Jack wanted some kind of commitment...a vow to return here, again and again, no matter what.

If Daniel gave it, there would be no turning back. He knew that like he knew the sun rose every morning over the mountain, like he knew the color of sky and sand on Abydos. He knew it like he knew Jack O'Neill could be trusted, even though he'd fought that knowledge to the last.

Dawn had come and gone, and still Daniel had paced the narrow confines of his living room, his eyes open but unseeing. It had seemed in those long hours that Sha'uri's face had floated before him wherever he turned, beckoning to him, pleading with him, begging him to go to her.

But to do that, he had to rejoin the team. And to do _that_ ...

To do that, he had to give up his isolation, his utter self-reliance. He had to give his trust, and he had to give it to Jack O'Neill, the one man on earth who really understood why Daniel needed to hold on to those things so tightly.

It felt like betrayal. It felt like giving up. It _hurt_.

But it was also the only way.

"I am," Daniel repeated, more sure now, letting the trust that was already there well up in his heart and convince him he was doing the right thing. Jack's dark eyes bore into his, and Daniel met the gaze unflinchingly. He brought a hand up to clasp Jack's shoulder, squeezing hard. "You have my _word_," he said quietly.

Matching the tone, gently probing, Jack answered the oath with a question. "What made you change your mind?"

Daniel smiled, just a little, sparing a glance for Teal'c and Carter before settling his eyes on Jack once more. "You guys need me," he said with iron certainty.

Jack's eyes widened, his eyebrows climbing, and Daniel nodded an acknowledgment of his abrupt turnaround.

"And?" Jack demanded softly.

Trust Jack to know there was more. A deep breath later, fighting for courage, Daniel offered the rest of it.

"And...I've lost enough family," he said.

  
   


* * *

  
   


Jack found himself at a loss for words, so instead of an answer he stretched out his right hand. Daniel let go of his shoulder and took it, squeezing hard. Their eyes met, both sets suspiciously bright.

"You won't lose any more," Jack said, his voice rough with promise. It was a binding oath, sworn in the crucible of fear and hope and trust that enclosed them, enclosed the moment.

"I trust you, Jack," Daniel said, and the words seemed almost effortless. He looked certain...and rudderless. Vulnerable...yet stronger in this quiet moment than Jack had ever seen him.

For the first time since Sha'uri had been taken, Daniel Jackson looked...heart-whole.

Oblivious to the curious glances and the heavy silence in the room, Jack pulled on Daniel's hand and dragged him into a sudden, rough embrace.

"We'll find them," he whispered fiercely. Another blood oath. They'd shed enough, and shared enough, for the words to stand as the deed.

"I know," Daniel answered.

Jack's arms tightened involuntarily. "I swear, we'll find them and bring them back."

"I know, Jack." Hesitantly, Daniels arms went around Jack's middle and squeezed. "We'll do it together."

"All of us," Carter said from a short distance away. Jack opened his eyes, and saw a glimmering in hers that was not reflected from the stargate.

"All of us," Teal'c affirmed from his place beside her. Many of their meanings slipped past Teal'c, but this wasn't one of them. This one they all understood, and it bound them together, deeper than the ties of rank or team solidarity.

The moment transcended itself, too intense to be sustained, and Jack felt Daniel begin to pull back even as his own arms relaxed. Daniel's eyes were on the floor in front of him, and he cleared his throat self-consciously before glancing back up at Jack and the other members of the team.

"Let's just pretend this never happened," Daniel suggested, quirking a smile at Jack.

Leaning in close, Jack reached up quickly and ruffled Daniel's hair, a grin of pure, relaxed delight on his lips. "Not on your life, Jackson," he said brightly. "Not on your life."

"May the gods have mercy," Daniel groaned.

Teal'c tilted his head to one side. "Which gods?"

Jack shook his head, feeling the laughter blossoming in his chest even before it erupted and joined that of Daniel and Carter. This time he took the dare and gave the bemused Jaffa a solid, friendly push before gathering his scientists in, with firm hands on their shoulders, and guiding them toward the glowing portal.

"Come on, kids," he said, his eyes shining bright with a quiet peace. "We've got a gate to catch."


End file.
